Curse of the Goblin King

By: OtakuSailorV

Chapter Seven

"If it's a fight you want, I'm right here."

Krayon had appeared in all his smug, cheaply-animated glory. Erutis stared at him, rolling her eyes in exasperation at his behavior. Did he have absolutely no shame at all? Now why did he have to go and pull some stupid stunt like this? Now she'd never be able to get Chris to calm down.

The said cleric's eyes were wide in shock at the sudden (and rather girly) appearance of the Goblin King. This was him, the 'Goblin King!' Well, he had heard that he was beautiful like a Demon Lord, but he had blown that off as just a rumor. Who would have thought that the might Goblin King looked almost like a woman and not the horrible ugly beast that everyone seemed to think he was?

Now, seeing as it was true, Chris smirked and brought up his clerical staff, tipped with one of the Holy Jewels of Rased. They were not meant to fight with, in fact, he was probably committing several sacrilegious acts by simply having the ambition to be a demon-slaying-cleric.

He had never really stuck to the rules though, being far too hotheaded and having far too short an attention span for religion-related things. Besides, here he was, and here was the Goblin King too, what better way to rid the world of a horrible menace and gain some fame in the process?

"Fine, as long as you aren't afraid of fighting a cleric of Rased." He challenged with a smirk, going into a fighter's stance.

Krayon laughed outright obviously unimpressed by Chris's statement. There was a look about his face that made it appear as if he were going to enjoy this little fight. "I'm never afraid to fight, though you're hardly worth my time."

He had succeeded in getting Chris angry at this statement, not that that was hard to do in Erutis' opinion; the young boy jumped forward, wielding his only weapon with a loud roar.

The Goblin King dodged, laughing as Chris wheeled about and struck out again.

Again and again Krayon dodged, teasingly holding still long enough for Chris to think his attack would connect before darting away.

Panting, Chris stopped long enough to glare and catch his breath, seeing now that attack head-on was worthless.

Krayon came down. Hovering for a moment over the marble before touching down lightly and giving Chris a mocking look. "Already giving up, cleric of Rased?" He teased with a hint of a smirk.

Ignoring him, Chris put the staff in its holder on his back before taking a deep breath and closing his eyes. He held quite still, his breathing shallow, his mouth moving to form words. He began to glow and his hair and clothes lifted and moved in slow motion to the current of a non-existent breeze.

Erutis' eyes widened in shocked interest. Up until now she had been watching with her arms crossed, waiting for Chris to either tucker out or for Krayon to get bored and pop off again to wherever it was he had been this entire time. This, though, was unexpected. She hadn't known that Chris had learned any of the divine chants that the clerics sometimes used to heal wounds. The question was, though, if he could use them in an attack form rather than just a scrape-healer. She doubted it, but he seemed pretty confident in his abilities.

Krayon got a playful, almost happy grin as he noticed the charging energy. "How fun, a challenge." he mused.

With that he pulled back up into the air, continuing to ascend till he nearly reached the roof. As he did so, he called up a ball of dark energy of his own. It was a deep, dark purple shade that snarled and popped with electricity in his bare hands. Mumbling under his breath the dark incantation used to call up his attack, his eyes grew cold and serious in a way that Erutis had never seen before.

Erutis shivered and caught her breath when she recognized Krayon's incantation. She couldn't hear his words, of course, but that crackling, sinister dark purple energy that was manifesting was unmistakable.

Being a swordsmaster and having been trained in the art of demon-slaying had a pictorial dictionary of demon spells logged in her brain and could easily recognize any one of them. But what was the Goblin King doing calling up demon spells, and especially one that usually only Demon Lord's could manifest? Was he a Demon Lord?

Her eyes widened at this prospect, and it all came back to her now. The strange occurrences, the reason she had been trapped in this castle for so long, his random appearances and his altogether quite dashing looks. He wasn't just some cursed human; he was a Demon Lord! And Chris definitely wasn't ready for a Demon Lord, despite he biased opinion of him fighting the Goblin King. Against a Demon Lord spell like that there would be nothing left of him but the sacred stone of Rased on his staff.

A sudden decision struck her, and just as the two attacks were just about to be released on each other, she jumped forward, sword in hand.

Chris and Krayon both seemed to come back from whatever planet they had been visiting and watched her in shock. Recalling their attacks, they stood down as she stood defensively in front of Chris. "Back off, Krayon!" She ordered loudly, glaring at him defiantly, daring him to move against her.

Her teeth were grit to stop them from chattering, and her legs and hands were shaking. She could feel a nervous sweat breaking out on her body. To tell the truth, she was quite frightened, but she was trained to fight no matter what emotions clouded her mind and so steeled herself against any coming advance. She knew it was probably suicide, and she wasn't at all one to suddenly show affection, but this was her friend, like it or not, and she was not about to stand by and watch him be slaughtered.

Krayon continued to stare for a moment, not making a sound, before he completely recalled his attack and floated back down to the ground with a funny like half-smile on his face, as if he were willingly submitting. "If that is what you wish, I will not fight the boy any longer." He promised.

Raising his head, he gave her a pleased grin, as if he expected her to jump right into his arms with cries of happiness and praises and thanks for sparing her friend. He was utterly disappointed then, when Erutis simply sheathed her sword and turned about on the young cleric that seemed clueless as to what was going on now.

Bopping him over the head with one fist, she glared at him fiercely. Chris growled and grasped at his head, looking up at Erutis with a tiny tear of pain in the corner of one eye. "Ow! Damnit, what the hell was that for!" He demanded angrily.

"Idiot, you don't know anything, do you?" Erutis scoffed at him. "You nearly got your ass killed just now, moron!"

"Yeah right, I knew exactly what I was doing you crazy wench!" He returned, one hand clenched in a fist as the other continued to cradle his bruised ego.

"Watch your tongue or I'll rip it out!" Erutis warned. "If you're going to fight people that know magic like you do, at least take the time to memorize what certain attacks look like. Especially the ones that'll kill you if you touch them!"

Chris stuck his tongue out at her, and Erutis immediately put him in a choke hold, growling insults at each other, they wrestled and fought like kids until they were both out of breath.

"You're still that idiot punk I left behind in the village." She said, glaring at him.

"Yeah, like you thought I was gonna change much in so little time?"

"You could stand to grow up a bit and live in the real world."

Krayon watched the exchange with growing envy. Not of the fight between the two, but of the friendship that obviously was between them. Sure, they had their differences and fought a lot, but Erutis would never allow him to act that way toward her.

Deciding to break it up before he got any sicker to his stomach, he made his way briskly toward them. "If you two are quite finished, I believe it is time for breakfast."

By some stroke of luck, Erutis and Chris were able to dine with each other with no more than several obvious glares at each other sent down the length of the table. Well, it was better than them having an eating contest, Krayon mused to himself as he sent a side-long glare of his own at the new guest in his castle.

How dare the little cleric show up and try to steal his Erutis away when he wasn't watching!

Now, any logical person could tell you that Chris was really no threat at all to the Goblin King, either in battle or to his relationship with Erutis, whatever it was at that point. But jealousy clouded his usually clear mind and so he sunk into almost a childishly pouting state the longer he thought about the new addition.

Well, if he was lucky, he could most likely kick the kid out before long, and it looked as if Erutis didn't really think more of him than just a close friend; he contented himself with these thoughts, though it did not stop his jealousy from rearing it's ugly head.

Erutis finished eating and quickly got to her feet in a swift motion before stomping off.

"Hey, where are you going, coward!" Chris jumped up from the table, slamming his flattened palms against the wood.

Erutis waved a silencing hand at him. "None of your business. And don't follow me." She added when Chris made to give chase.

Erutis continued on walking until there was nothing left but the sound of her boots clunking against the marble hollowly.

After a moment of tense silence, Chris grunted angrily and pushed himself back down into his chair, folding his arms over his chest and closing his eyes.

Krayon watched him curiously; waiting to see what he would do next. He actually had half a mind to follow after Erutis himself, though secretly of course, but something told him she was in no mood for his antics either. Not that that had ever stopped him before, but this 'Chris' creature was quite strange and he was interested in watching the competition.

Chris finally seemed to notice that someone was watching him and started when he saw the Goblin King looking right at him with a displeased, almost hate filled look. His eyes were narrowed and he made no noise when Chris shifted uneasily away from him, just continued to stare blankly.

Uncertain of what was going on, Chris tried acting as if he wasn't bothered by the Goblin King's unnerving stare and got to his feet roughly again, nearly toppling his chair in the process. He cleared his throat, and shifted it back into place before walking around the room aimlessly.

The eyes of the Goblin King followed him all the while and he felt aggravated by this. What was he doing, following him around the room with that weird look in his eyes! The freakin' psycho! How could Erutis stand to be penned up in this place with some creep like this hanging around. . .More to the point, why was he staying here like this now? The Goblin King was his enemy as was he Erutis' and here he was dining with the horrible thing! Not only that, but Erutis acted as if it were no big deal at all! Had something happened?

Glancing slowly out of the corners of his eyes at the goblin king, he swiftly looked away when their eyes met and felt a chill run through him. No! Not him! She wouldn't have. . .No, Erutis wouldn't have. . .

His mind seemed to go blank just before racing with a sudden barrage of confusing and mostly indecent thoughts. What if Erutis was under his mind control and that's why she was acting all funny? He had heard that the Goblin King might have powers like that.

Suddenly Chris whirled about, flames in his eyes as he grasped at his clerical staff still in the pouch on his back and prepared to strike out at the Goblin King who still sat at the table, watching him. "I'll destroy you!" He proclaimed as he jumped into the air.

"I wonder what she sees in you?" Krayon mused aloud, dully watching the boy that was sailing through the air towards him. "You're no different from other brats."

Chris dropped back to the ground, shocked that he had spoken, and not only that, but that he had somewhat confirmed Chris' suspicions.

"What are you talking about?" He demanded, taking a seat across from the Goblin King and scrutinizing him angrily. He hated being called 'brat', but he would let it slide for now.

Sighing to himself wearily, Krayon got to his feet before sending Chris another glare. This time Chris did not stand down, instead he met the glare with one of his own as the formidable Goblin King prepared to stride away. Without another word, the King strode off.

"Hey you! Wait! Get back here, damnit! I'm not done talking with you!" Chris chased after him, but stopped when he turned the corner he had just seen the Goblin King turn.

He had vanished into thin air, not even a wisp of magic sat in the air where he had just been.

Waah! Sorry about the long wait, minna-san! Again!

Well, it's nice to be back, I really missed working on this while I was busy on some of my other fanfictions. I hope that no one thinks there is a loss of description in this fic suddenly, I looked back over it just now and it didn't appear so, but there is definitely a lot more talking scenes in this fiction than I think in the last few chapters. O' course, that could just be me. Also, does anyone think that Chris is OOC? I think I got him down pretty good, but I'm such a perfectionist I doubt my ability to keep anybody IC. Hehe…

Thanks a lot for all the reviews, minna-san! I knew that there had to be more EruKra fans out there! Hehe, thanks again, you keep the fic coming back. Also, thanks for your patience as always, I'll try and update again soon.

Thanks again and see you all soon! Ja'ne!

Review Please?